City Driver Charged With Drug Trafficking Keeps His Job

BY JIM DOOLEY - The driver of a massive city sewage tanker truck was using and selling crystal methamphetamine while on the public payroll and even stayed on the job for seven months after he was charged with federal drug trafficking offenses last year, according to court records and interviews.

City officials said they didn’t know that driver Patrick L.K. Vega Jr. was arrested in a federal drug trafficking case in September 2011 and indicted less than a month later.

“We were not aware that he was indicted,” said Tim Houghton, executive assistant in the city Department of Environmental Services.

But one of Vega’s fellow workers, driver Kenneth Mersbugh, said he and others repeatedly complained to managers about Vega’s drug activities before and after he was arrested.

Vega’s job was hauling 7,000-gallon loads of sewage on the narrow, heavily-travelled roads of Windward Oahu: two round trips daily between Kailua and Kahuku and one round trip between Kailua and Waimanalo.

Mersburgh said Vega’s drug use and legal problems were widely known at the Kailua Waste Water Treatment Plant, their base of operations.

Vega even showed co-workers the GPS monitoring device federal officials required him to wear strapped around his ankle after he made bail.

“He was kind of proud of it,” said Mersburgh.

Mersburgh said he complained to supervisors, to the office of Environmental Services Department Director Timothy Steinberger and even to the Mayor’s office about Vega staying on the city payroll but nothing was done.

Kenneth Mersburgh

“They never did anything before he was arrested and then they let him come back to work after he was arrested,” Mersburgh asserted.

Houghton said he could not comment on Mersburgh’s statements because they “involve on-going personnel matters.”

Houghton said Vega was “subject to random drug/alcohol testing as a Heavy Truck Driver II during his employment” but did not reveal if Vega was ever actually drug-tested.

Vega kept driving for the city after he posted bail in the federal drug case in October 2011 and after he admitted new use of crystal meth to federal authorities in the following month, records show.

His bail was revoked in May after he again violated the terms of his court-supervised release and he has been locked up in the Federal Detention Center since then.

“We are not aware of Mr. Vega’s federal supervision status or any admissions he may have made during such status,” Houghton said.

Vega pleaded guilty in January and is now scheduled for sentencing in December.

Vega resigned from his city job July 5, 2012, according to Houghton.

Hawaii Reporter learned that another employee at the Kailua plant, Paul Boisjolie, was on state court probation for a drug-related theft offense from 2004-2011 and repeatedly violated the terms of his probation by committing new crimes and testing positive for illegal drug use.

The city took no action against Boisjolie until last year when he was terminated for “abuse of sick leave,” said Houghton.

“We were not aware of Mr. Boisjolie’s probation status nor the alleged repeated positive tests for use of illegal drugs that may have occurred during any such probation period,” Houghton said.

In a new criminal case brought two months ago, Boisjolie was charged with promotion of crystal methamphetamine and morphine and is now awaiting trial for those alleged offenses.

Paul Boisjolie

Mersburgh, 60, a 26-year city worker with a history of blowing the whistle on illegal and improper activities at the Kailua plant, said he Boisjolie’s drug use was well-known bosses and rank and file workers at Kailua.

In fact, Mersburgh said, his bosses used “false allegations” from Boisjolie as the basis for placing Mersburgh on leave-with-pay for one year.

Mersburgh returned to work after Boisjolie recanted his allegations, according to Mersburgh.

Now, Mersburgh alleges, he is being threatened with demotion or termination in part because city officials say he couldn’t get along with Vega.

“How could I get along with him? He was high on drugs on the job. His behavior was bizarre and erratic,” Mersburgh said.

According to federal court records, Vega sold a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source 107 grams (nearly four ounces) of crystal methamphetamine in August of last year.

Police and federal agents then found more than a half-pound of the drug in a search of his car September 28, according to the DEA.

An indictment returned October 13, 2011 accused Vega of conspiring with two other men, Patrick Kanohokula and Russell Chee, to possess and distribute crystal methamphetamine.

Kanohokula, who’s also known as Kojack, allegedly hid more than half a pound of meth in a child’s car seat, where it was recovered by DEA agents, according to court records.

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Jim Dooley joined the Hawaii Reporter staff as an investigative reporter in October 2010. Before that, he has worked as a print and television reporter in Hawaii since 1973, beginning as a wire service reporter with United Press International. He joined Honolulu Advertiser in 1974, working as general assignment and City Hall reporter until 1978. In 1978, he moved to full-time investigative reporting in for The Advertiser; he joined KITV news in 1996 as investigative reporter. Jim returned to Advertiser 2001, working as investigative reporter and court reporter until 2010. Reach him at Jim@hawaiireporter.com

I should make myself clear! Court documents for Vega & Boisjolie are just that - court documents. It's how things are handled I don't believe. Mersburgh is not trustworthy and is not so innocent himself but is quick to point fingers and make allegations about others, probably to get attention away from himself. He and his group act like they are so innocent & perfect, like they do nothing wrong!! Why don't they research and print silva's court records, and for Goerge he is another cry baby and never did do his work.

Sick of the Lies you are getting of the track of what the article is about. How could City Officials let this happen? To speak bad about the employees for saying how they feel is not right. Everybody has the right to say how they feel if you are forced to work with someone you know is on drugs or even drinking for that matter. Everyone wants to go home at the end of the day and be with their families.

City employee or Kenneth Mersburgh , you are a BIG FAT RAT. A rat will keep his head above the water level, even if he has to make a pact with the devil. Like you said, admit your fault, fix it, and move on. Stop holding on to old resentments from 10, 15, 20 years ago. It's making you sick inside. You have broken the privacy act of your fellow coworkers. You claim to be trustworthy but you are a rat. I hope Pat and Paul have time to think and put you on their short list. You deserve due justice. For you idiots out their, for your info, this is a new management team, trying to make the plant a better place to work. Get the facts right, like my father said, "never trust a rat".

it certainly takes a man using his own name & allowing a picture of himself to be printed and expose corruption in City government, going against City Hall. In the meantime, those of you who wrote derogatory statements could only use fake names. You're nothing but cowards! What, don't you care that your taxes are being misused & abused? I certainly care, and am glad that this mess has been uncovered by Mr. Mersburgh and Mr. Dooley and Hawaii Reporter. Kudos!
The school teachers must be horrified reading the comments that some of you posted. Your grammar and spelling are atrocious and embarrassing. If you're supervisors and or managers, it's pitiful indeed!

The next mayor should clean out the trash that exists in Environmental Services from Kapolei to Sand island, Human Resources, the Ethic commission to Corporate Council so that the tax payers who are unaware that their tax monies is being fraudulently used, abused & misused will be enlightened as to what's going on in City government.